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Stæfcræft (Grammar)
Eahlisc GrammarEahlisc is a complicated language. It has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) which have little relation to natural gender, five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and an almost vestigial instrumental), and three numbers (singular, plural, and a vestigial dual). It inflects nouns and pronouns for number and case; adjectives for gender, number, and case to match their noun; and verbs for person, number, tense, and mood (indicative, optative, and imperative). There are only two tenses (present and preterite), but it builds more with auxiliary verbs, primarily habban, "have", and willan, "will".
Noun Declensions
Nouns are inflected for number and case. They possess only singular and plural number; the dual still exists only for a couple of the personal pronouns.
The nominative is used for subjects, and occasionally for the predicate nominative, where the sentence draws an equivalence between the subject and object, usually using a form of beon, "be". It includes the vocative case.
The accusative is used for direct objects, and occasionally for objects of preposition, depending on the preposition and sometimes subtle shades of meaning thereof.
The genitive is used for possessives, and occasionally for objects of preposition depending on the preposition and sometimes subtle shades of meaning thereof.
The dative is used for indirect objects and most objects of preposition.
The instrumental is used for objects of certain prepositions, in cases where the object is the method or mechanism by which something is done. In almost all declensions, the instrumental form is indistinct from the dative, so even in the unusual cases where it is used, it usually isn't actually possible to tell.
There are possibly as many as 30 different noun declensions, depending on how they are counted, but the most common ones are these:
Typical Masculine/Neuter Noun Declension
Singular | Plural | |
Nom./Acc. | - | -as |
Gen. | -es | -a |
Dat./Inst. | -e | -um |
Typical Feminine Noun Declension
Singular | Plural | |
Nom. | - | -a |
Acc./Gen. | -e | -a |
Dat./Inst. | -e | -um |
Weak Declension, Any Gender
Singular | Plural | |
Nom | - | -an |
Acc. | -an | -an |
Gen. | -an | -ana |
Dat./Inst. | -an | -um |
Pronouns
Pronouns, like nouns, are inflected for number and case, but are extremely irregular. The 1st- and 2nd-person personal pronouns still possess a dual number, which Eahlisc has otherwise lost. The dual is used to refer to two things, but not any two; only when the things form a natural pair, which makes its use very rare. The dual takes plural verbs, adjectives, and so on.
1st Person Pronoun
Singular | Dual | Plural | |
Nom. | ic | wit | we |
Acc./Dat./Inst. | me | unc | us |
Gen. | min | uncer | ure |
2nd Person Pronoun
Singular | Dual | Plural | |
Nom. | þu | git | ge |
Acc./Dat./Inst. | þe | inc | eow |
Gen. | þin | incer | eower |
3rd Person Pronoun
Masc. Singular | Fem. Singular | Neu. Singular | Plural | |
Nom. | he | heo | hit | hie |
Acc. | hiene | hie | hit | hie |
Gen. | his | hiere | his | hiera |
Dat./Inst. | him | hiere | him | him |
Verb Conjugation
Infinitive verbs end in -an, -ian, or occasionally -on. The verb ending is inflected for person, number, tense, and mood. Tenses other than the simple present and preterite are formed with an infinitive appended to a conjugated auxiliary verb. Future tenses are formed with willan, "will", conjugated in the present tense, while perfect tenses use habban, "have", in the present tense for the present perfect and the preterite for the past perfect.
There are eleven general verb conjugations, plus a number of irregular verbs. Most of the general verb conjugations are variations on this:
Typical Verb Conjugation
Present Singular | Present Plural | Preterite Singular | Preterite Plural | |
Indicative 1st | -e | -aþ | -ede | -edon |
Indicative 2nd | -est | -aþ | -edest | -edon |
Indicative 3rd | -eþ | -aþ | -ede | -edon |
Optative (all persons) | -e | -en | -ede | -eden |
Imperative 2nd | -a | -aþ | ||
Participle | -ende | -ede |
Participles are further inflected as adjectives, for number, gender, and case.
Masc. Singular | Masc. Plural | Neut. Singular | Neut. Plural | Fem. Singular | Fem. Plural | |
Nom. | -ende | -ende | -ende | -endu | -endu | -endra |
Acc. | -endne | -ende | -ende | -endu | -ende | -ende |
Gen. | -endes | -endra | -endes | -endra | -endre | -endra |
Dat. | -endum | -endum | -endum | -endum | -endre | -endum |
Ins. | -ende | -endum | -ende | -endum | -endre | -endum |
The verb beon, "be", is extremely irregular.
Present Singular | Present Plural | Preterite Singular | Preterite Plural | |
Indicative 1st | eom | beoþ | wæs | wæron |
Indicative 2nd | eart | beoþ | wære | wæron |
Indicative 3rd | is | beoþ | wæs | wæron |
Optative (all persons) | sie | sien | wære | wæren |
Imperative 2nd | wes | wesaþ | ||
Participle | beonde | gebeon |